The complexity of simple things...

When I was young, I used to drive my parents nuts with questions. Questions about literally everything that happened to come to mind. "Why is the sky blue? How do birds know which way to fly in the winter? Why can't I keep my eyes open when I sneeze? What makes the sun shine? What holds the road up?" Some of the questions might have seemed ridiculous to an adult, but as a kid, we have a certain fascination and curiosity about everything around us. After all, that's an important part about how we learn... you can't get an answer unless you ask a question. And ask, I did.

Now that I'm an adult, I still question things (probably more so than the average person), but I don't think that's a bad thing. The questions may have changed with time, but the reasoning remains the same. I still consciously try to have that child-like wonder about the world around me.

As we grow older, we get caught up in the everyday rat race and the seemingly simple things that surround us everywhere tend to get less and less of our attention. It's sad, really. When was the last time you actually stopped to admire the beauty and wonder of a simple flower? But not just the smell and colour of it... think about what actually had to take place for that flower to sprout from a seed, take root, grow and eventually blossom. What is it about a seed that allows it to sit dormant for years, but then when it falls upon soil, suddenly gives it the ability to spring forth into such amazing life? The more we look into such supposedly basic things, the more and more complexity we find contained within it. The deeper we look, the more we find.

The Spring season always serves as a wonderful reminder to me of what an amazing world we live in. A renewal and resurgence of life surrounds us. It's just too bad that so many of us are too busy and distracted with "living" our lives to stop and take notice of it. Too many of us have lost the awe and wonder and sense of acceptance that we had as a child - and in doing so, we have become lost ourselves. A child does not worry about tomorrow, nor does he/she fret about yesterday. They live in the moment. A child does not look at something and choose to limit themselves because they are told that it's impossible. They see it vividly in their mind and see themselves accomplishing it. Perhaps if we only took some time to focus on the here and now, and forget for even just a moment the past and the future, we might find ourselves again.

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." ~ Matthew 18:2-4

Today I choose not to worry about tomorrow, but to live in joyful anticipation about what lies ahead.